Ghost Tower of Iverness Part 1 - The Journey to the Keep Report

General Summary

The PCs begin their quest on behalf of the Seeker Cellik'mer by taking a pre-arranged boat down the Selintran river beyond the city of Hardby and into the Wolly Bay beyond the lands of Greyhawk.

After a short journey across the bay the characters arrive at an ancient landing in grave disrepair. From there, the PCs make their way to an obscured and overgrown ancient highway: the road to the Ghost Tower of Ivnverness. It is obvious that in addition to the ravages of time and encroachment of nature parts of the road have been deliberately made more difficult to travel (i.e.intentionally felled trees, manmade landslides)  

Rewards Granted

The Tempting Treasure Chest  

• still unopened it's contents remain a mystry

Formian Flyer Components  

• manage to harvest 6 900 gold worth of components
• keywords to make items related to: insects, flying, natural armor, natural weaponry and poison
• currently buried in the wilderness there will be a 20%+5% per day chance that the component will be ruined or scavenged by the time the players come back to pick them up

Missions/Quests Completed

The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Oozes

• at one point the road to Inverness is completely covered be an avalanche of boulders forming a narrow canyon
• it here that the PCs encounter three stone oozes which are dispatched with only minor damage

You Are Here

• the PCs encounter a sign post at the fork in the road with a treasure chest at its base
• one placard has an arrow with "go home" written on it pointing back to Wolly Bay
• another placard has an arrow with the words "this way to Inverness"
• a third placard states "Congratulations. You indeed must be brave adventurers to dare to break the Ghost Tower. As a sign of respect please take the treasure and return from wince you came."
• the party discovers the area is under 2 curses triggerd by opening the chest
• one curse prevents the victim from wanting to persue the ghost tower if they turn back
• the other curse presents as "bad luck" if those claiming the treasure proceed to the ghost tower
• the PCs choose not to take the chest but not open it until they're done with their quest

Formian Patrol

• PCs come across an insectoid Formians patrol
• a moderately challenging combat breaks out seeing the PCs victorious
• after examining the exo-skeletons of the flyers it is determine they can be used as magic item components (see rewards above)
• not wanting to be spotted with slain formians in case they run across more the players bury the component in a nearby copse of trees to be picked up later
• after reviewing their perfromance in the battel the PCs determine that though they did so violently it would seem that the Formians were just trying to drive the player off

 

INVERNESS KEEP

• to the partie surprise their approach and entry into the ruin keep is without incident
• main gate doors so rotted it allow easy egress into the inner courtyard
• the dominating feature being a huge pile of ruined buildings with the rest of the couryard showing signs of numerous foundations
• the PCs originally think it's the tower but will find out from the Ruin Chanter (see below) that the debris is from the surrounding foundations
• the only other features within the courtyard is a stone hut with a camp fire by it (lair of the Ruin Chanter)
• the Ruin Chanter spots the characters as they try to sneakily make it to the NW tower
• all of the towers have their upper floors in ruin (and probably unsafe to traverse)
• signs of of shadowy movement are noticed in both of the Northern towers

Character(s) interacted with

The Ruin Chanter

• the middle age man which intercepts the party introduces himself as Jhaeros Quirel
• he says he's the guardian of these ruins tasked with making sure they're not disturbed
• he's intitialy weary but friendly to the PCs providing them with several tidbits of informatio such as:

THE COURTYARD

1. The rubble in the middle of the couryard was piled there to prevent the ghost tower from phasing back in (denying it base/foundation)
2. This has only been partially successful as the tower still reappears from time to time but is now in an ethereal state or reappears a few hundred feat above the courtyard

JHAEROS STONE HUT   THE FORMIANS

1. Have recently begun building a hive below the keep
2. They've come to the conclusion that if they don't interfere with each other they can co-exist
3. Jhaeros worries though "a scorpion can't change it's nature" and sooner or later the hive will be large enough for them to want to assimiliate him into the hive
4. As he is bound to the ruins he just hopes when that time comes the Hive will act as a good enough deterent for those wishing to enter the dungeions (and that the Formians themselves don't make a play for the Soul Stone)

ALLEGIANCE TO THE "Silent Ones" REVEALED

1. Jhaeros begins questioning Yvaine and Django about their Seeker Signet which quickly enrages him
2. he reveals that he belongs to the Silent Ones of Keoland an organization who are enemies of the Seekers
3. Battle breaks out (where we're currently at) in which Jaeros summons a few Ruin Elementals and lays down a field of Spike Stones
4. As he tries to put some distance between him and the PCs he collapses the hut down onto them

Notes

NOT A ONE SHOT

• wisely use resources
• long rests should be strategic
• chaos factor applies

RESKINNING MONSTERS

• The ruin chanter is normally a fey spirit
• I decided to make him a member of the Silent Ones who went through transformation ritual

ALLEGIANCE VS. ALIGNMENT

• for the first time players encounter an allegiance that are enemies to one of theirs
• in this case it doesn't matter what the overall alignment of players are
• The Silent Ones will always treat memmbers of the Seekers (and their allies) as Chaotic Neutral
• this effect interactions and spell affects

DM OOPSY

• the Ruin Chanter has DR 5/Cold Iron and Magic not 10
• I've gone back and adjusted his hit points